I'm rarely a purist when it comes to foods. If someone calls something "Italian" (or any other ethnic food), my first thought is
not that it will be authentic, but rather will I like the flavor. I assume right off the bat that pretty much unless I'm in a country, I won't be getting "authentic". But "based-on" (even if loosely) is OK with me as long as it tastes good.
I've been to Italy and even spent a little bit of time there. Unfortunately, due to overall lack of time, and unfortunate due to the fact that I didn't have time to sample a wide variety of regional differences, I spent most of my time in the northeast: mostly Ravenna (about 5 weeks), a couple of days in Bologna and a week and a half in Venice. I made a side trip of a week and a half to Rome and probably ate in too many tourist places. In Rome, I was more worried about architecture and history, having been a Latin minor in college and having translated a lot of the works of famous Romans - WOW I loved Rome but don't remember much of the food. I also loved the churches and mosaics in Ravenna!
I was there for work, in Ravenna. I absolutely loved it. We ate a lot of seafood, which was just fabulous, and good beef (cooked wonderfully and accompanied often by rich sauces). But we also ate a lot of pasta. There was one place in particular that the area personnel from the company called "The Volume House" (damned if I can remember the actual name of the place). It was a stone structure with lots of open space inside and very high peaked roof and open rafters. The floors were stone. The eating area was rows of wooden tables with wooden benches. They brought out bowls of pasta pre-mixed with sauces, Italian sausages of various flavors and a few meat dishes. You paid a single fee to eat and ate until you were stuffed to the gills.
I found the food, particularly the pasta, to be much-better-done versions of food I was already familiar with from restaurants in Houston (with a couple of Houston restaurants being very close to what I had in "The Volume House").
I guess I'm saying that I didn't have too many surprises as far as "authentic" Italian cooking goes, except it was better for the most part and there were indeed dishes with which I was not familiar directly but had had something similar at home.
I will say I never had a pizza in Ravenna, Bologna or Venice. But I did in Rome. I absolutely loved it! The one I remember was on a very thin, crispy crust, with freshly-made minced tomato sauce (not cooked), shrimp and arugula. No cheese at all. It was delicious. I know I came back to that same place for pizza once more, but can't remember what I had. The only pizza I had, so I can't comment on "normal" Roman pizza.
BTW - we spent half our time in Rome in a convent outside the city. Don't even remember the name of the place (this was in the late 90's, an age ago!) but it was really neat. The sisters were SO SHORT! I remember Suor Flora was the head (whatever her title is, I don't know or remember), who was quite a fiesty sister. She refused to speak English (though she did speak the language - she graced us with her fluency for the only time when we entered the convent and she showed us around). There was only one other guest on the grounds while we were there, from somewhere in Eastern Europe and we all learned to converse in simple Italian during the time we were there - I was impressed with how the sister did that.
I can certainly understand how an Italian would prefer the authentic version of foods, as well as anyone who has traveled there and enjoyed the food directly in its "natural state". But "Italian food" in many places in Houston (and I'm not talking about places like the Olive Garden, for example - chain food Italian is about like McDonalds in most, if not all, cases), at least, are not-bad-versions of "based on" Italian food for the most part.
Same goes for Chinese. I spent some time in Singapore as well, a couple of months working also. We frequented a lot of different places and the food was quite a bit different even than real Chinese food, I'm sure (never actually made it to China though we had an operation there), so perhaps the comparison is not completely apt. The food was prepared differently than what I was used to but a lot of the sauces, and particularly the noodles, were quite familiar to me. Heh - I remember the first time we went into a mall to do some shopping and went down to the basement where their food court was located. The vast majority of people there were eating noodles and I was at first overwhelmed by the all-surrounding and nearly overwhelming sound of slurping! But how else do you eat noodles in broth with chopsticks
In Aberdeen, Scotland (another couple of months) I went to a couple of "ethnic" places with some local friends. No Italian, but one Tex-Mex place, and one Chinese place. The food was very similar to what I might get in the States, but of a lesser quality. But the food was mostly recognizable (for example, there were enchiladas that looked pretty much like the enchiladas from back home) even though not great.
But when you come to Argentina, it's pretty much a giant step down. It has to do with the taste of things for the most part, but sometimes just a complete difference of things with the same name. I remember one of the first "Mexican" meals I had here was at a place on Lavalle called "Acapulco". They had burritos, tacos and enchiladas on the menu. The taco was a soft tortilla folded over some tasteless meat - no sauce. The enchilada was a soft taco folded over some tasteless meat and a hot sauce (actually spicy) made of red peppers and tomatoes - tasteless and HOT - dribbled on top of the tortilla. The burrito was a soft taco folded over some tasteless meat and a hot sauce dribbled inside the tortilla.
I've since found better places since then, obviously. But nothing really good. In Houston we have authentic Mexican food as well as Tex-Mex. What I've had here has never been near authentic of either variety, and that's OK: but it's never been good. Well, OK, there was one place out in Pilar, across from the Jumbo/Easy shopping center, that was run by Mexicans. I don't think they were chefs - they didn't have a big menu and it was mostly actually Tex-Mex, but some good flavors none the less. The best I've had here, though I haven't gone searching for either Tex-Mex or Mexican in a long time.
Most "Italian" food I've had here is greasy, pasta cheese sauces are clumped as if they just melted cheese and didn't even make a sauce (I remember in particular a "cuatro queso" pasta dish where you could see the four cheeses separating as the food cooled!) (and I can't remember having a good pesto) or put a lot of flour in the sauce or something. And rarely do the sauces or the other dishes have a decent flavor, and just seem to be lacking in any subtlety whatsoever.
My overall point is that the "ethnic" foods in places other than they were originated may not be "authentic" but they can still be enjoyable. Argentina does not do a good job, in my opinion, of making "ethnic" foods enjoyable except in a relatively few places.
I don't find Argentine cooking, overall, to be of very good quality, which is why I do a lot of cooking when I want something other than meat - and even then if it's beef I pretty much never order it in a restaurant anymore. I prefer my grilling techniques (turn often, pink or red from the outside to the center, all the same color, never gray - plenty of juice [or blood if you like it as rare as I do, though I "rarely" cook steak for others like that]) over many who do the work professionally here and I seem to be able to get a better quality of beef than the majority of restaurants serve nowadays. I've had a lot of good grilled pork like bondiola and matambre here, though.